New restaurants headed to Bay Area in 2016

David Kinch is opening another Los Gatos restaurant, the Nola-themed Bywater.

David Kinch is opening another Los Gatos restaurant, the Nola-themed Bywater.

Photo: Yue Wu, The Chronicle

Photo: Yue Wu, The Chronicle

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David Kinch is opening another Los Gatos restaurant, the Nola-themed Bywater.

David Kinch is opening another Los Gatos restaurant, the Nola-themed Bywater.

Photo: Yue Wu, The Chronicle

New restaurants headed to Bay Area in 2016

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It was a booming year for Bay Area restaurants, but it looks like 2016 might give 2015 a run for its money.

A number of four-star chefs are opening offshoots in 2016 led by Manresa’s David Kinch, who will channel his New Orleans roots in Los Gatos with the Bywater (532 N. Santa Cruz Ave.), slated to open Jan. 12.

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Benu’s Corey Lee is readying his third restaurant, In Situ — a curated culinary exhibition of a la carte dishes inspired by dozens of globally renowned chefs, including Rene Redzepi, Alice Waters, Thomas Keller and Andoni Luis Aduriz — which will be located in the newly remodeled San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, scheduled to re-open in May.

Daniel Patterson may be handing over the reins of his flagship restaurant, Coi, to new Chicago transplant Matthew Kirkley, but he will be keeping busy on several different collaborative projects in the new year. Most notably, Patterson is working on opening Loco’l, his fast-food concept with a social conscience partnership with Los Angeles chef Roy Choi; the first two locations are slated to open in Watts and the Tenderloin. Also in the works for the Daniel Patterson Group is the revamp of the Financial District’s old-school Alfred’s Steakhouse (659 Merchant St.) with Charlie Parker.

Christopher Kostow and Nathaniel Dorn, the team behind the Restaurant at Meadowood, are taking over the recently closed Wine Country classic Tra Vigne (1050 Charter Oak Ave.). Another yet-to-be-named restaurant is an upcoming drinks-and-bites spot from Michael and Lindsay Tusk, which will located across the street from their fine-dining palace Quince.

There’s also Fat Noodle, the fast-casual project from Saison chef Joshua Skenes and Adam Fleischman (Umami Burger), and Antoinette, the new French brasserie by Dominique Crenn, which is set to launch in the Claremont Hotel Club & Spa (41 Tunnel Road, Berkeley) in early 2016.

Looking to join the Michelin-ranked crowd is Healdsburg’s Single Thread (131 North St.), the restaurant and hotel project from Kyle and Katina Connaughton. It will be a ticketed tasting menu that will be heavily influenced by the chef’s time in Japan, as well as ingredients grown on the couple’s nearby farm.

Photo: Sally Egan

Kyle Connaughton and Katina Connaughton work in the garden that will supply many ingredients for the dishes in their new restaurant.

Kyle Connaughton and Katina Connaughton work in the garden that...

There are also plenty of other out-of-towners looking to plant roots in the Bay Area.

Tokyo’s celebrated Mensho Ramen is set to open its very first American outpost, Mensho Tokyo (676 Geary St.), in the Tenderloin.

California cuisine pioneer Jonathan Waxman, who made his name at Michael’s in Los Angeles and Barbuto in New York, will open his Ghirardelli Square Italian restaurant, which, according to Hoodline, will be called Brezza Emporio and Pizzeria. (Waxman has another Brezza outpost in Atlanta.)

David Nayfeld and Matt Brewer, who have both worked in high-profile fine-dining establishments around the country — Brewer at Chicago’s three-Michelin star L20 and Nayfeld with Daniel Humm at Eleven Madison Park in New York — are converting a former auto body shop on Divisadero for their Italian restaurant, Che Fico (838 Divisadero St.).

Che Fico isn’t the only new restaurant coming to Divisadero. According to Hoodline, Namu Gaji is taking over Jay’s Cheesesteak (553 Divisadero St.) for a forthcoming Korean spinoff, Namu Stonepot.

Photo: John Storey, Special To The Chronicle

Souvla in Hayes Valley is working on a second outpost in the city, this time on Divisadero.

Souvla in Hayes Valley is working on a second outpost in the city,...

Greek-inspired rotisserie Souvla, which opened in Hayes Valley in 2014, is opening a second outpost in the shuttered Herbivore location (531 Divisadero St.).

SoMa coffee roaster Sightglass is working on a new shop at 301 Divisadero in addition to its new outpost at SFMOMA.

Barmen Justin Lew and Ian Scalzo have won over neighborhood drinkers with their boozy slushies at the temporary Tsk/Tsk (528 Divisadero St.), but we’re looking forward to see what happens when the bar’s permanent incarnation, Horsefeather, debuts this year.

There will also be new reasons to visit Chinatown. In addition to the recently reopened neighborhood classic Sam Wo, look for the 30,000-square-foot Chinese food emporium China Live (644 Broadway) to open in spring, along with its tasting menu restaurant, Eight Tables. A few blocks away, Brandon Jew will finally open his solo spot, Mister Jiu’s, in the former Four Seas space (731 Grant Ave).

Din Tai Fung may not be in Chinatown, but the renowned Taiwanese dim sum palace should finally be opening its highly anticipated first Bay Area outpost in San Jose’s Westfield Valley Fair Mall (2855 Stevens Creek Blvd.).

Other happening hoods include usual suspects like SoMa, Mid-Market and the Mission.

In SoMa, you have Michael Mina’s unnamed — and if rumors are true, possibly Middle Eastern-themed — project in the Salesforce Building (350 Howard St.). There’s also the Spanish-leaning Bellota at 888 Brannan from the Absinthe Group. Susan Sarandon’s ping-pong palace/bar and restaurant, Spin, which took over the space at Third and Folsom last summer, should open its doors this spring.

Nearby in the Mid-Market corridor, Cadence (1446 Market S.) — Jay Bordeleau’s follow-up to newly opened jazz and cocktail lounge Mr. Tipples Recording Studio — is set to open in January. Due around the same time is the nearby Perennial (59 Ninth St.), the environmentally conscious eatery from Anthony Myint, Karen Leibowitz and company. A couple of blocks away on Van Ness, Hi Neighbor Restaurant Group (Trestle, Stones Throw, Fat Angel) is building a fast-casual cafe and grab-and-go, Corridor. Over in Hayes Valley, Kim Alter is still working on Nightbird (330 Gough St.) and its bar, theLinden Room.

Photo: Russell Yip, The Chronicle

Chad Robertson of Tartine Bakery and Cafe is seen in their new space in the Heath Ceramics building. Robertson hopes to open the space which will include a bakery, cafe and ice cream shop early next year.

Perhaps the most anticipated opening in the Mission is the Manufactory (555 Alabama St.), Tartine’s expansion that will be located in the Heath Ceramics building. Not far away, the Morris will be a new restaurant from Frances and Octavia beverage director Paul Einbund, located in the former Slow Club (2501 Mariposa St.).

Per Tablehopper, the former Dona Mago space at the corner of South Van Ness and 16th Street is set to be the home of Starboard, a hofbrau-style restaurant from Daniel Hyatt and the team behind neighboring bar Slate.

The beer trend continues with a number of places that will open around the Bay Area, including Noriyuki Sugie’s collaboration with Japan’s Kiuchi Brewery, Hitachino Beer & Wagyu in the Tenderloin. Reno brewery Brasserie St. James will bring beer back — plus French food — to the old Abbot’s Cellar space on Valencia Street. Over in Oakland, the Drake’s Dealership folks are aiming to open a beer garden near MacArthur BART called Arthur Mac’s Tap & Snack this spring.

Last, but certainly not least: To the delight of its legions of fans, beloved Daly City institution Joe’s of Westlake (11 Glenwood Ave.), now under the stewardship of the family behind San Francisco’s Original Joe’s, will finally reopen its doors sometime in early 2016.

These forthcoming openings only scratch the surface of what’s to come for 2016. Here’s to another bountiful year of eating and drinking about the Bay Area.